page_title: Nero Wolfe
section_title: Nero Wolfe (CBS)
hierarchical_section_title: Nero Wolfe / Adaptations / Television / Nero Wolfe (CBS)
caption_attribution_description: English: Promotional photo for the aborted 1959 CBS television series Nero Wolfe, starring (from left) William Shatner and Kurt Kasznar The photograph appears on the second page of a photo feature titled "Bill Shatner's Trek to the Top." Photo caption reads as follows: '59. Nero Wolfe. Kurt Kasznar. Bill was one of the most sought-after young actors on TV. CBS." Original printed image in the magazine measures approximately 2.125 x 1.25 inches.
context_page_description: Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.
  Stout published 33 novels and 41 novellas and short stories featuring Wolfe from 1934 to 1975, with most of them set in New York City. The stories have been adapted for film, radio, television and the stage. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated for Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was a nominee for Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
context_section_description: On September 15, 1949, Rex Stout wrote a confidential memo to Edwin Fadiman, who represented his radio, film and television interests. The memo provided detailed character descriptions of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, and a physical description and diagram of Wolfe's office. Stout's biographer John McAleer inferred the memo was guidance for the NBC Nero Wolfe radio series that began in October 1950, but in summarizing the memo's unique revelations he remarked, "A TV producer could not have hoped for more specifics."
  On October 22, 1949, Billboard reported that Fadiman Associates was packaging a television series featuring Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe characters. When CBS-TV's Perry Mason went into production, Stout received some 50 offers from film and TV producers hoping to follow up on its success with a Nero Wolfe series. By April 1957 CBS had purchased the rights and was pitching a Nero Wolfe TV series to advertisers. The series had Stout's enthusiastic cooperation.
  In March 1959, The New York Times reported that Kurt Kasznar and William Shatner would portray Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in the CBS-TV series. Both actors were then starring on Broadway—the Vienna-born Kasznar in Noel Coward's Look After Lulu! and Shatner in The World of Suzie Wong.
  Nero Wolfe was co-produced by Gordon Duff and Otis L. Guernsey, Jr., with Edwin Fadiman as executive producer. The theme music was composed by Alex North.
  The pilot episode, "Count the Man Down", written by Sidney Carroll and directed by Tom Donovan, was filmed in Manhattan in March 1959. The half-hour program concerned the mysterious death of a scientist during a guided missile launch at Cape Canaveral. Guest stars include Alexander Scourby (Mr. Belson), Phyllis Hill (Leslie Gear), George Voskovec (Dr. Wohlgang), Eva Seregni (Mrs. Lowenberg), Frank Marth (Ernest Petchen), John McLiam (Professor Adams), John C. Becher (Mr. Faversham), Eileen Fulton (Receptionist), and Rene Paul (Christian Lowenberg).
  The series was to air Mondays at 10 p.m. ET beginning in September 1959. But in April, CBS announced that the new comedy series Hennesey would occupy the time slot.
  In June 1959, Baltimore Sun critic Donald Kirkley reported that the Nero Wolfe pilot had been, "in a way, too successful ... Everything seemed to point to a sale of the series. A facsimile of the brownstone house in which Wolfe lives in the novels ... was found in Grammercy  [sic] Square. But when the film was made and shown around, it was considered too good to be confined to half an hour." In October 1960, William Shatner was reportedly still working to sell the first television adaptation of Nero Wolfe to the networks.
  The 1959 Nero Wolfe pilot episode was released on DVD and Blu-ray in October 2018 by VCI Entertainment, in Television's Lost Classics: Volume 2. The four rare pilots on the release were digitally restored in high definition by SabuCat Productions from the best archival film elements available.
caption: William Shatner as Archie Goodwin and Kurt Kasznar as Nero Wolfe in the aborted 1959 CBS-TV series
exif: {}